Bronwyn Maye Guiton

There’s a fascinating story been developing over the past year about a British author’s rise to popularity.

She writes Twilight fanfic and gets a good response on fanfiction.net. She renovates the fanfic to put in original characters, setting, plot, etc. Gets the resulting book, Fifty Shades of Grey, printed by a vanity press as a Kindle e-book (available on Amazon.com). Key point: she sets the Kindle e-book sharing permissions to “sharable.” Sites like BookLending.com (a site for exchanging shareable Kindle e-books) facilitate the sharing. Word of mouth builds. The book places second in GoodReads.com’s Best Books of 2011 contest in the romance category (voted on by readers at the end of 2011). Demand for the Kindle e-book skyrockets and the author makes two sequels available as Kindle e-books. Random House in the US take an interest and signs her. Her e-books are no longer shareable and hard copy versions of the three books are printed the first week of March 2012. Her 1st book currently tops pretty much every US best-selling fiction list.

BBC article about the author’s rise: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17332129

Slate article about the appeal of the trilogy: http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/03/the_new_smutty_novel_fifty_shade_of_grey_.html

Images showing New York Times & Amazon.com best sellers list. The Amazon screenshot was taken on Monday, March 12th when Fifty Shades of Grey had dropped to number 2. When this post was drafted on Sunday, March 11th, the title was at number one.

Every year the Oscar’s put on screenings of their nominated short films and a few also-ran’s. I attended a Vancouver screening of their animated short films. My three favourites (in no order) were La Luna, Skylight, and The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t see short films as being particularly lucrative when sold via traditional physical mediums. I mean, who is going to buy a $15 DVD with a 3 minute film on it? Not I! However, were you to give me the option of purchasing the film as a movie on iTunes, I would happily pay up to $5 for that same 3 minute film. Having a copy of it means being able to share a great experience with friends.

Interestingly, only one of my three favourites takes advantage of the exposure provided by these North American screenings. While none are available for purchase as a movie on iTunes or Amazon, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, is fully available for free on Vimeo. On the Vimeo page for the movie, there is also a link to a $4.99 iPhone/iPad app which bundles the short film and an interactive ebook. I think this is an excellent strategy, although I just wish I could just buy the film in a non-discriminatory film format and leave it at that.

(POST OSCAR AWARDS UPDATE: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore won the award for short animated film. Perhaps on a related note, their video is no longer available for free on Vimeo. It is however now available to purchase on iTunes for $1.99 or $2.99 for the HD version. My feeling is that making the movie available for free in advance of the awards allowed the creators to build enthusiasm for their film and may have contributed to it winning.)

I also wish La Luna and Skylight had been made available for free or purchase. Goodness knows I’d happily pay $4.99 to help people understand why I couldn’t stop saying “BOOM! Chicken!” after seeing Skylight. Until then, I shall have to be content with the non-official copy I found on YouTube: 

(UPDATE: A few days after posting this, the short animated film program (the nominated films plus some honourable mentions like Skylight, were made available on iTunes for $6.99 or $8.99 for HD quality.)

As a first timer at the BC Libraries Asscociation conference, I enjoyed a unique perspective this weekend. I had never attended a conference, but I’d heard how useful and how fun conferences could be.

Here’s my top five observations:

• The Twitter conversation is a huge value-added aspect to conferences. Organizers can encourage this conversation by choosing and publicising a single hashtag.
• Experienced debate moderators are key to the success of a great debate.
• The delight of surprise free Hagen Daz bars cannot be underestimated.
• Traditional public libraries will, indeed, continue to be traditional until they actually hire significant numbers of young, flexible, ambitious librarians.
• Criticizing Twitter users will get you criticized on Twitter.

Originally posted on February 19, 2010 to Bronwyn’s LJ under the title Awesome Blog Alert.

This morning I had some free time and internet access so I’m checking off one of my short-term goals: read the whole archives of Hack Library School: by, for and about library school students. As a library student and a fan of life hacks in general, I’m finding so many interesting posts. Herewith, my favourites:

Theory Vs. Practice: Separating What’s Important

“There’s so much we learn that, over time, it’s easy to see what will help us in our careers, and what is just information. (Ex: how to run story time will help me; defining “information” probably won’t).”

The Road to ALA ’11: Our Experiences Thus Far

“The whole professional development factor is an important one to be involved in early in one’s career, and we all believe that should start in school.”

The Name Game

“On the first day, we talked about what to call those people that go into the library. Are they patrons? Users? Customers? Students? What are they?”

How Hireable Are You?

“An academic librarian visited one of my classes last quarter, and she talked about the hiring process in the California State University system. The CSU uses points and rankings in hiring their librarians, which many public libraries do as well.”

The Road to ALA ’11: LIS Student Tips and Tricks

“Last year, I attended my first ALA conference as a library school student, and it was an eye-opening experience. Of all the local and national librarian conferences I’ve been to, it is by far the biggest and most overwhelming. Here are some of my tips for staying on a library school student budget, networking, and more.”

Originally posted by me on January 24th, 2011 to As We May Think (& Other Points of View) under the title Consumer Frustration and How to Avoid It.

A BoingBoing article, “Help Kym crack the obsolete DRM on her ebooks”, ably demonstrates consumer frustration with the eBook life cycle. In the article, the subject, Kym, is frustrated that her eBook software is no longer supported and is seeking a DIY approach to strip the DRM and view the eBook on contemporary software.

I believe general consumer frustration stems from two sources. The first is dissatisfaction with the underlying philosophy guiding eBook DRM. The second is miscommunication with the retailer regarding what exactly is being purchased.

In The Technology of Rights, Coyle summarized the underlying philosophical disagreement when it comes to DRM:

“Where copyright law is an expression of “everything that is not forbidden is permitted,” DRM takes the approach of “everything that is not permitted is forbidden.” (p. 18)

Obviously this is an aspect which requires significant work, but I want to focus on the customer experience aspect today instead.

It is clear that the strategy of marketing eBooks as the convenient cousin of dead-tree books has backfired and led to considerable frustration. For example, on Amazon.com, eBooks are sold as just another edition of a title. The Kindle edition of a book appears right alongside the paperback and hardcover. However, unlike these editions, it is not automatically possible to reproduce, lend, consign, or even read them.

When music first went digital, the large majority of business models failed because retailers expected to sell consumers a less user-friendly product for the same price as CD’s. It wasn’t until Apple started offering a more versatile product at significantly reduced prices that consumers embraced digital music.

I believe that if eBook retailers were to clearly publicize the limitations of the format and simultaneously reduce prices significantly, consumers would be far less frustrated going forward. For example, I myself would be less likely to complain down the line if the sales pitch I had bought into was something more along the lines of this:

“This Kindle eBook is only going to work on your Kindle or with Kindle software until the day we chose to discontinue service to it. You probably cannot lend this eBook and you definitely can’t sell it after you’re done. On the bright side, you can start reading it immediately and it’s only $2.99 – even on release day.”

What do you think? Could a franker explanation of exactly what is being purchased prevent mid to long-term consumer frustration?

Originally posted on January 23, 2011 to Bronwyn’s LJ under the title Of Library Websites.

The other day in library school class, we were examining different library websites for their usability.  Something struck me as we were doing this exercise: modern & colourful doesn’t necessarily = awesome.

For example, while the consensus was that the Athabasca University Library website was atrocious and the West Vancouver Memorial Librarywas great, there were many library websites in the middle that were deceptively awful. For example, the Vancouver Public Library and the SFU Library websites are colourful, design-y, and full of practical information . . . that is impossible to locate efficiently.

I concluded that if I had to deal with a bad library website, I would prefer to deal with an old, plain one like the Athabasca University Library. There at least, I could be sure that I wasn’t missing the information — there’s nowhere to hide it!. In contrast, the VPL and SFU websites are so huge and detailed that you never know where you are and what you might have overlooked.

Originally posted on September 6, 2010 to Bronwyn’s LJ under the title First Day of School.

Tomorrow is Tuesday and my first day at UBC’s School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies. Excited does not even begin to describe my mood!

I was reading this interesting article about music and libraries on Librarian in Black and just had to share. The questions, challenges, and possibilities posed by the author represents the larger issues which partially drew me to the field to begin with.

Wish me luck

I am reviewing the podcast by the DC Public Library.

You access the DC Public Library podcast by hovering over “News and Events” on their home page and then clicking on “Podcasts” on their drop-down menu. This is a fairly short route to the podcast, but it is not exactly intuitive. If a patron did not know that the library’s podcast mainly covered events held by the library, it would not be obvious to look under “News and Events”.

To listen or watch an episode from the main podcast page, you have three options:

1. Clicking on the icon labelled “pod” beside each episode title.
2. Right click and save the link titled “Direct Download: title.mp3″
3. Subscribe using the RSS feed.

For a new user, it may not be obvious that you have to click the “pod” icon in order to stream the episode, especially considering the title of the episode is a link too (the title does nothing except take you to the episode-specific page). Furthermore, although there is a link titled “Direct Download: title.mp3″ for each episode, clicking on that link just streams the episode in your browser too. In order to download the episode you need to right click and save that link. This podcast is available on iTunes, but there is no indication of that on the main podcast page.

The DC Public Library seems to be working hard to engage a range of different user groups. Furthermore, it seems to host or promote a lot of events aimed at affecting public policy. In this respect, a library podcast that focuses on covering library events fits in well with the rest of the website.

If I were a patron of the DC Public Library I would only listen or watch episodes of this podcast which covered events I was interested in but could not attend. Indeed, a few of the episodes are simply recordings of larger events. That said, most of the episodes are video recordings. The fact that most of the podcast episodes are videos is not really advertised. Considering the extra effort involved in experiencing video (i.e. it is more difficult to multi-task efficiently), I would be interested in knowing what sort of audience stats this podcast has.

I believe the usabiity of this podcast could be improved in a few ways:

1. Publish the length of each episode in it’s description.
2. Feature a 1-click subscribe button to iTunes.
3. Place a link to the podcast in a more intuitive place on the library homepage.
4. Write more exciting descriptions of each episode.
5. Ensure the “Direct Download” link actually downloads the episode directly when you click it.

I am reviewing the Library Podcast by the Mount Kisco Public Library.

The link to the Library Podcast is featured on the front page of the library web site. There are comparatively few links on this page, so the podcast link stands out well.

Upon arriving on the podcast’s main page, there is a clearly labelled “Play” button beside each episode title. Clicking that button opens a pop-up where you can stream the episode. There is also the option to download each episode as an MP3 directly from your browser. If you’d rather subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or your RSS reader, there are a variety of program specific buttons down the right side of the page. Overall, I would rate the usability of the main podcast page as good.

The Library Podcast fits in to an interesting patchwork of services offered by the library website. Many of the links on the library home page take you to external services or external blogs run by different areas of the library. The main podcast page is no different. Many of these external services are initiatives to reach out to specific user groups like kids, teens, or summer readers. In this respect, the library podcast conforms to the style of the rest of the library website.

I was impressed by the books and authors the Library Podcast chose to feature. It spans everything from local teen poets, to contemporary literature, to teen fantasy, to storytelling tips and techniques. I can’t attest to the quality of each episode, but the variety of topics definitely sounds interesting. If I were a Mount Kisco Public Library patron, I would definitely try out this podcast.

After a brief site visit, I think two things could be changed to improve this podcast:

1. Clean up the array of subscription buttons down the right side of the main podcast page.
2. Consider refining the audio recording and editing technique to present a more polished product.

I am reviewing the teen podcast by the County of Los Angeles Public Library.

The COLA Public Library Teen Podcast is difficult to find. You can only reach their podcast via one route: scrolling down to the bottom of COLA Public Library home page, clicking “Site Map”, and then clicking on “Teen Podcast”. Simply clicking on “Teens” on the COLA Public Library home page took me to a page where there was no mention of a teen podcast. The podcast is hosted on a website called colaplpodcast.org while the library website itself is called colapublib.org.

The podcast main page offers two RSS subscription buttons. One is titled “AllPosts” and the other is titled “TeenShow”. “AllPosts” seems to be a chronological feed of all the episodes while “TeenShow” is a handful of episodes from 2009. The last episode to be posted on the main podcast page was from April 2010. The COLA Public Library Teen Podcast is not listed on iTunes.

In order to stream an episode from your browser, you must click on the green speaker icon beside the episode titles. There are no instructions for downloading the MP3 directly. However, if you right-click on the green speaker, there is the option to save the file to your hard drive. The title of each episode is clickable too, but you don’t learn anything new by clicking on it. Taking these observations into account, I would not rate this podcast a user-friendly.

The entire COLA Public Library feels clean and modern. It isn’t the most inspiring website I’ve seen, but it is definitely serviceable. Moreover, there are a variety of service advertised on the website which make it clear the library is trying to engage or re-engage its public. A teen podcast fits with this pattern.

Because the podcast has not been updated recently, I would be hesitant to use it if I were a patron at this library. Furthermore, it’s tricky to say whether I would use this podcast if I were a patron of this library. If I were a teen at and some of my friends had contributed to a podcast episode, I might listen to it. However, it’s likely I would have preferred to listen to podcasts by adults I looked up to, rather than teens I had never met.

I believe this podcast could be more user-friendly if the following oversights were addressed:

1. The podcast needs to be updated and updated regularly.
2. If one of the RSS feeds is no longer in use, it’s link should be deleted.
3. It is easy to have one’s podcast listed on iTunes and so it is odd that the COLA Public Library has not pursued this distribution method.
4. There should be clearer indications how to download a podcast episode from your browser and alternately how to stream it.
5. There should be an easier way to find the podcast main page from the “Teen” section of the COLA Public Library website.

This is a review of the children’s podcast at the Denver Public Library.

If you arrive at the Denver Public Library Home Page, there are two paths you can take to find the Denver Public Library Children’s Podcast:

1. Home >> Social Media >> DPL Podcasts >> Children’s Podcasts
2. Home >> Kids >> Parents & Teachers >> Denver Public Library Storytime Podcast

Neither of these routes are particularly direct. However, Denver Public Library has a huge number of services and events to publicise so it is no wonder this service did not make it to the homepage.

Once you arrive on the podcast home page, you can browse episodes chronologically or by subject category (nursery rhymes, songs, different types of stories, etc.). From this page you can stream or download each episode directly as an MP3. You can also subscribe to a chronological feed of their episodes via RSS. Interestingly, although this podcast is available on iTunes, there is no button on this page pointing to iTunes. Regardless, it is a fairly user-friendly set up.

The Denver Public Library offers a huge array of modern services to all age groups, therefore this service fits in well.

If I were a parent of a young child, I would certainly load these onto my iPod and play them in the car or at home instead of turning on a kids movie or tv show.

I have several suggestions for making this podcast more user-friendly:

1. Harmonize the naming of the this podcast. I suggest it be called the Denver Public Library Storytime Podcast across all platforms, including iTunes, RSS Feeds, and on all pages of the library website.
2. Include a 1-click subscribe in iTunes button.
3. Allow RSS and iTunes subscriptions to individual categories of episodes in addition to just the chronological feed of all episodes.
4. When you click “Direct download: x.mp3″, your browser should download that episode rather than begin streaming it. As it is, in order to actually download the episode, you actually have to right-click and save the file.

This is a review of the teen podcast of the Cheshire Public Library.

If I arrived at the Cheshire Public Library homepage looking for their teen podcast, I would not see any mention of it at all. Instead, I would have to click “Just for Teens” and then “CPL Podcast”. This is a logical link path, but not exactly quickly accessible.

If someone had never accessed the Cheshire Public Library Teen Podcast before, their main podcast page makes it very clear what the podcast topic is, how to listen to it, and how to contribute. On the podcast main page, there are two links to stream the latest episode, there are links to stream each of the old episodes, there is a link to subscribe to the RSS feed, and there is a link to download a PDF describing how to subscribe in iTunes.

As a modern public library that is reaching out to engage and re-engage its public, the Cheshire Public Library Teen Podcast, fits in well. For example, the teen librarian also coordinates games nights, clubs, and teen driven book review blog.

It’s tricky to say whether I would use this podcast if I were a patron of this library. If I were a teen at Cheshire Public Library and some of my friends had contributed to a podcast episode, I might listen to it. However, knowing myself, I probably would have preferred to listen to podcasts by adults I looked up to, rather than teens I had never met.

I believe this podcast could be more user-friendly if the following oversights were addressed:

1. It is easy to embed a 1-click “subscribe in iTunes” button to a web site. Therefore, it is odd that one is missing from the podcast main page.
2. Of the two links for steaming the latest podcast episode, the one titled “he latest episode” is broken.
3. The list of podcast episodes on the main podcast page is more up to date than the iTunes listing
4. If you subscribe to the podcast via RSS reader, the actual audio file for episode 20 is missing.